


Queens of Camelot

by RobberBaroness



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Incest, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-17 06:24:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17555054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/pseuds/RobberBaroness
Summary: Five women who could have married Arthur.





	Queens of Camelot

**Queen Morgan**

 

He’ll never know.

The fine lady lay with the king and carried his child within her, and he took her to wife with no regret or hesitation.  She erased her past so that even the greatest of spies and gossips could not prove her the daughter of Ygraine, and when she could not bring herself to kill the man who slept beside her- the cuckoo, the child of shame, her brother, her true love- she told herself that the deception and crime against his birth was revenge enough.  Prince Mordred grows each day, proud and clever. A child of Gorlois’s blood will sit upon the throne.

Arthur will never know the truth because this secret is Morgan’s punishment.  She wove herself this web of lies, and to destroy it now would be to destroy herself.  Her love lives in blissful innocence, and she carries the sin for herself and herself alone.

 

**Queen Elaine**

 

She watches the knight from her seat at the tournament and cries when he shows the favor of his chosen lady.  Imagine it, a man carrying his own wife’s ribbon in pride. Lancelot and Guinevere, the beauties of court. Elaine had once thought herself a beauty.

By rights, the King has nothing to complain about.  He knows his wife loves him as a dear friend, and she has dutifully given him an heir.  In the presence of the sweet little Prince Galahad, the parents pretend to be happy.

She’ll never betray him.  She’ll never have the chance.  He holds her hand in silent compassion when they watch the tournaments.

 

**Queen Lynette**

 

With her sharp tongue, the Queen is not popular among the knights (save for Gareth, her brother in law, who seems incapable of taking an insult or holding a grudge.)  Her very first words to the King were an insult- if he sent a knight to save her younger sister, she herself would deign to marry the upstart usurper.

It was a surprise to many that he took her up on it.  It was a surprise again that the pair came to love each other.

If Arthur wished to believe the best of everyone, Lynette countered by believing the worst.  Don’t trust your sisters, she told him, those harpies are after something. Get rid of Merlin, she urged him, that man’s advice has never served you well.  Certainly don’t trust Mordred, he’s always hanging about my room like lovesick child.

When he took it, her advice worked.

 

**Queen Niume**

 

Their children have blue-grey eyes and smiles as sharp as steel.  Any one of them could command empires, the boys and the girls, and they all have the beauty imparted by their parents- the honest gaze of their father, the apple-blossom cheeks of their mother.

There had never been a question in Arthur’s mind as to whom he would marry.  Who else loved him enough to crown him as a king? Who else would go to war with the greatest sorceress of the age to keep him safe?  Who else would carry out the terrible task of ending the greatest sorcerer of the age, when he had grown cruel and mad with prophecy and tried to instigate the murder of children?

Queen Nimue has no enemies at court.  None living.

 

**Queen Gloriana**

 

The Faerie Queen sets foot in Camelot once a year, on May Day.  The King of Britain sets foot in the Faerie realm one a year, on Halloween.  The rest of the year they haunt each other’s dreams, living lives of moonlight and shadow in a land of their own.

There will be a child, one day.  Camelot awaits and yet dreads that day.


End file.
